This has been a rough December for Disney films.Wakanda Forever has legged out with a box office at $780 million. There might be a little more money coming in, but the theatrical run has defied my predictions and is settling about $100 million lower than I had forecast.This is bad news for me, nut seriously bad news for Disney because that means it has lost at least $100 million. I know it has to be surprising that Marvel would have to break...
Welcome to a new feature here at the Arkhaven Blog: PRE:View. Modern Woke Hollywood and Woke Disney in particular, is the pinnacle of storytelling failure. Just by looking at the characters’ race and gender, plus the tropes the show is leaning into, you can tell how the entire story is going to go. They are completely predictable now.I’m starting this series off by giving myself a challenge, Disney’s Willow. Willow is a BOLD REIMAGINING of LucasFilm’s 1988 garbage-tier Tolkien feature of the same name. I...
The only reason DC fans were excited about James Gunn taking the helm at DC was that it seemed to coincide with Henry Cavill’s announced return to his signature role as Superman. When he wasn’t being weighed down by Zach Snyder’s grim dark visuals, Cavill could deliver the warm-hearted, aspirational boy scout that everyone on Earth wants Superman to be.Now that the scales have been kicked from my eyes, I can see a lot more clearly what James Gunn will bring...
That post aged badly.Henry Cavill has just confirmed that he is out as Superman.At this point, I am not certain about anything. If Cavill is gone then there might be an entire from-the-ground-up reboot of the DCU.James Gunn's first public decision about the DCEU and it just alienated a gigantic portion of the fanbase.
Apparently, this one is making the rounds again. I’ve been hearing rumors of Kathleen Kennedy’s imminent departure from LucasFilm for years now and it has never happened yet.I admit her continued employment at Disney flies in the face of both business and common sense. She is unquestionably the worst brand manager in the entire history of all entertainment. The Force Awakens was a competent restart if drearily unoriginal. Its primary problem was that once people had a chance to think about the parts that...
I had no hopes for this “movie.”And it delivered on that.Here’s the background from a few months agoFrom Nickelodeon and Paramount +, the one-two punch of suck comes Monster High – The Movie. This is going to be a live-action version of the toy/video cross-over series from about ten years ago. I can’t fault the original business model as it handily had its way with my wallet whenever I made the financially ill-considered journey to Toys R’ Us. The dolls were meant to...
Part OnePart TwoIf there is one thing that Disney-trained executives universally fail at, it is processing bad news that will remain bad news.No matter how bad some event is, Disney-trained execs are always going to try and find “a spoon full of sugar” from somewhere. Doesn’t matter if it is an extinction-level event, they are going to view every problem as an opportunity, even if it is obviously an insoluble opportunity. Optimism is nice and all. But when you are deep...
If Disney animated films begin with, “Once upon a time there was a…” Once upon a time there was a beautiful girl fleeing from an evil queen, into the woods… Once upon a time there was a little boy who didn’t want to grow up… Once upon a time there was a mermaid that wanted to walk on dry land… Once upon a time there...
There is nothing Disney World hates more than the words “half-day park.” Guests aren’t going to have more than one meal. They are likely to save their money for the “real parks.” It creates problems with the flow of people at night. Worst of all, guests cut their stay short by a day because they went from Hollywood Studios to Animal Kingdom It’s all ghastly, from Disney Park’s perspective. Animal Kingdom used to be a half-day park but the addition of...
This one is kind of obscure but was decidedly a favorite of mine back in the day. It wasn’t No Man’s Sky but it was fun and is still a decent game. In 1992 the Chief Financial Officer of Sierra Entertainment, Edmond Heinbockel, had had enough. I’m not sure what he had had enough of, but he had clearly had IT. He led a walk out of Sierra and with the aid of several former Sierra game devs, started a new company in 1992, Tsunami...
